Intel has just announced their new line of Atom processors, with integrated graphics on the same die (piece of silicon) – an idea that rival AMD has been preaching for years under the “Fusion” name. Using its 45nm manufacturing process, Intel’s new Atom chips use less power (25%-50%) and use a reduced footprint (60% to 70% because there are two chips instead of three).
Most Netbooks released at CES will use the Atom N450, while low-priced desktop machines will use the Atom D410 or the dual-core version named D510. Both processors are designed to work on the same motherboard chipset NM10 Express from Intel.
The processor generates less heat, so we are going to see fan-less designs in Netbooks with longer battery life. We’ve seen this prototype from Dell, for example (The Fujitsu computer sill has a fan). Netbooks are still the fastest-growing computer segment and it does generate incredibly good margins for Intel, if you keep in mind that this is a product for cheap computers. We will wait for independent benchmarks, but we expect performance to be superior, but not by much.